Wednesday, December 19, 2012

In the wake of the horrible tragedy in CT last Friday, the above viral photo-post appeared numerous times in both my Facebook feed and also in my husband's. He offered the following response, and I thought it worthwhile for sharing.

"In the last days some of my Facebook friends
have re-posted a “letter to God”, asking how He could have allowed the
tragedy in Connecticut to happen, and the punch line is that God reminds
the writer that He isn't allowed in (public) schools. My friends offer
this story, I assume, as a commentary on the laws of our land and the
sad state we find ourselves in when we witness children being murdered.

Respectfully, I disagree with the punch line. The God I believe in is
everywhere, filling all things, dwelling within us, comforting,
sanctifying and redeeming us all. There is no place from which God is
absent. None.

God is there in the valley of the shadow of death
for the Psalmist, He is there in the lion’s den for Daniel, in the
furnace with the three youths, turning the flames of death into the dew
of salvation. God is there with the martyrs who accept death rather than
deny His goodness and presence. God is in the brothel, in the crack
house, in the halls of every school or shopping mall where shooters kill
innocent people. From the deepest sea to the highest mountain - God is
there.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, remember
that we celebrate the reality of the pre-eternal God humbling Himself
and putting on our mortality - our broken flesh - like bait on a hook so
that He could go into the deepest place of corruption and decay (the
grave) and defeat death from the inside, completely shattering death’s
hold on us. The sweet baby Jesus, asleep on the hay, submits to death so
that there is now NO PLACE where He is “not”.

Would allowing
prayer in our public schools prevent shooters killing kids in school?
No. Look at the history of the Christian church - faithful believers
have been struck down during the very act of worshiping - dragged from
churches or killed on the spot. Believing in God and worshiping Him will
not protect you from an unfair, violent death. BEING God didn't prevent
Jesus from the same.

How would we even decide what kind of
prayer to have in our schools? The prayer of contemporary
non-denominational “religion” that is so generic it doesn't address any
specific God? of the Protestant fundamentalist stripe? of the Christ
embraced by the KKK? (they use crosses and quote scripture...) or of the
group that claims God hates fags? What if one of those “religious”
persons was your child’s teacher - would you want them leading your kids
in prayer?

All of this is a scandal, a stumbling block. It’s
the paradox that while we want to be like Jesus (WWJD?), we can’t be
Christ Triumphant unless we’re also willing to be Christ Crucified.
Turning the other cheek, forgiving, being humble to the point of death.
Impossible - for us to do on our own; but what is not possible for us is
possible for God.

I have faith that God is in our schools
because God dwells in the temple of our hearts, in the flesh that He put
on and took with Himself, first into the grave and then into heaven.
Our flesh, our mortality, is blessed and made holy by God becoming one
of us. Nothing can take that away.

So we grieve the loss of
innocent children and adults - it sucks, it’s wrong, it’s sinful and
broken and corrupt. But as we grieve, we do so knowing that the ultimate
battle has been fought and won. God with us, Emmanuel. Always."